Goals Met: ~90%

Song Of The Month (listen while reading!): Romeo - Sures - Indie Pop - https://open.spotify.com/track/6ZSGoZs9xYZyShF3o4o7el?si=725eb7e25d5944c2

Unfortunately I missed doing an April retro, due to the wedding and Japan holiday I attended.

How did I do with last month Aprils’s goals?

I had all personal goals for April.

Decide on my new job at Formly

  • Result: A+

Sorry this might be a bit long as this was a big decision for me. These job decisions really teeter between feeling final and trivial.

I will be joining as the first employee at Formly. I explained a bit more in the previous retrospective about this decision, but I’ll rehash it a bit again.

Formly is a new startup (i.e only the 2 founders) that helps companies get their product medically certified. The cool part is that it allows companies to do this on their own, with an expensive consultant with the help of AI to fill out the forms.

I’ve been working freelance with a company called MyGroove, which has been great to start of my freelance career. The pay was great but the work fluctuated between good and bad. I also found with MyGroove, I was purely an engineer, I didn’t have much decision making about what we were building, I wasn’t networking or meeting investors, and generally not doing much to help my future career. I was purely making good money and the job was decent.

With Formly, they are an exciting company. They’ve just got investment, I’ll be helping with fundamental decisions and hiring, both inside and out of engineering. Awesome.

While I am giving up my freedom as a freelancer, I think the tradeoff is worth it for really cool work and lucrative personal opportunities to really build a startup and do some more networking (which, the old I get, really appears to be the most powerful thing in future opportunities).

Let’s see how it goes. I’ll also be working my first 4-day work week job. Yay! Time for new side projects.

Book rest of Japan

  • Result: B

I didn’t really book much of Japan, but it was fine. Just like our Vietnam trip.

First of all, Japan for 3 weeks was amazing. It was the right call to only do Japan, and not also hit Thailand.

The time flew.

We ended up just booking hotels as we went. This worked pretty well, especially due to how flexible we could be. It also saved us the huge effort of trying to figure out all the train tix online.

The main problem is it required me having a laptop. I had to do a ton of hotel comparing, and likely could have got better deals if this were planned earlier. Would also have been nice to not have to stress about the new itinerary every few nights.

Finish Chlorine song

  • Result: A+

I finished and mastered my new song.

Once I got on a ball, I just finished it. It just takes sitting down and getting over the first 15 mins to finish it.

I did >10 versions of the master, due to mistakes in each one. I think this was a good learning process, but I’m still not happy with the final result.

It makes me think that I should really be outsourcing this stuff as I’m not good at it, and I don’t like doing it.

Then I can just work on making the new music which I enjoy, and with better results. Rather than saving a few bucks.

Workout 1 time per weekday

  • Result: C

Hasn’t been a great 2 months for my working out and general good habits.

Get contacts

  • Result: A

I got contacts. Don’t really like them.

Go To A Tech Meetup

  • Result: A

Went to a ReactJS meetup in Berlin. It was great and I made a friend. I need to be doing more of these, its just a great idea for meeting more tech friends and getting opportunities. I also want to do a talk!

What else got done last month?

  • Reasons I’ve been slow the last 2 months

    • Stag in Lisbon

    • My brother coming to Berlin & May day

    • Wedding in Ireland

    • 3 weeks in Japan

      This was my second time in Japan and my first outside of Tokyo.

      Main points in Japan:

      • Food & toilets are incredible
        • Although, it wasn’t very easy to find food always with my girlfriend being Vegetarian
      • No public garbage cans is a huge pain, but they’ve an interesting relationship with trash
      • This was like the first trip I did a bunch of clothes shopping, they’ve really cool clothes and vintage there
      • Japan is very touristy now, and it wasn’t even high season
      • Really cheap with the Yen in its current state
      • I have some new travel side project ideas I’ve been pondering

    • 1 more week in Ireland

  • Played a really nice gig with CORP. in an old squat in Berlin
    • I’m getting a bit disillusioned with my band, just a little less interested in it, but every time this happens, we get a really cool opportunity, so we’ll keep it going
  • We told our investor for SkinTheory we are going to close down the C Corp. He was pretty cool with it and we said we’d wire as much back as possible.

Lessons Learned?

  • Negotiations with Formly, and the new job
    • Asking for more is always better
    • I got less equity than I wanted, but I am getting a 4 day work week with a decent salary. Will have to see if this was a good trade: is a bird in the hand worth 2 in the bush?
    • Being able to talk informally and not adversarially, is way better in negotiations. We both want this too work. Also, I don’t feel greedy then.
  • Booking trips
    • Have a full itinerary before, if you can, atleast book the hotels and save yourself the pressure
    • Bring a laptop if your booking alot
    • Pack less than you need (besides underwear and socks), and buy some bits there
  • Japan is rainy
  • Booking festivals for a band sometimes is very last minute
  • Give more to your good friends as wedding gifts
  • Subletting our apartment for a month seems pretty doable in Berlin

What are my goals for next month?

“You can’t connect the dots going forward, only back” - Make sure these goals trend the dots towards my goal, being in front of the right people, focusing time where it matters, etc.

  • Get into a good routine with Formly
  • Decide and begin next side project
  • Finish my new song’s mastering: Chlorine
  • Create plan for Chlorine release/ep/name change
  • Hit all my good habit goals (german, working out, stretching, waking up)
  • Book USA travel
  • Get a credit card

What are my 2023 (year) goals?

  1. 🟡 Kill SkinTheory or get it off my mind completely.
  2. 🔴 Build 3 startup projects, and get faster and more publicity with each. Get atleast 1 to €100 MRR.
  3. 🟢 Support myself with a cool job or through freelancing.
  4. 🟡 Keep myself networked in the startup/engineering scene.
  5. 🔴 Get to the next level with CORP. Get on a label or manager that supports bigger bands or gets more publicity.

What are my lifetime goals?

  1. Run my own business that allows me to: support myself, be relaxed, be innovative, love my work, travel.
  2. Backpack for 6 months through Asia.
  3. Have 100,000 fans of my music.
  4. Be relaxed and be excited to wake up to my life every day.